all this Ricardo love makes me miss the first bike i ever bought, when i was a kid I saved all my hard earn't brown one dollar notes until i had $176 of them and bought what i thought was a real, fair dinkum, racing bike, with an amazing array of 10 gears , cant remember the model and it was all white, not exactly what i would have chosen as a colour when i was a kid but that was all i could have in a large size to fit me. I'd ride that thing as fast as it would take me (and before that i thought my super elliott was fast, huh! ), got pulled over by the cops on more than one occasion, a few times when as kids we would race the cars down the narrow winding steep decent into the SA country town of Yankalilla, the cops said it was dangerous, we kept doing it, duh..another time in the city (adelaide) they pulled me over at a radar trap and told me to slow down, "the speed limit applies to you too kid"

As kids we used to talk about what brands of bikes were the best, in our micro world we all thought and bragged that Ricardo was the best you could get well we all knew Porshe were the best bikes in Oz, they had a really cool emblem too, but that bloody german company that made the 4 wheel jalopies made them change their name to Ricardo!arrg! so that now made Ricardo the best bikes!!!

incidentally, there are a couple of Porshe (old Ricardo) bikes on the ol auction site at the moment, with the shield emblem and South Australian Piper (magpie bird) on the head-tube, not racers unfortunately, one ladies and one roadster type thing, its got a stick shift!

Ricardoman wrote:....Not only did I have sales brochures from 1985 thru to 1988 I also had brochures for 1989 and 1990 -1991 plus I dug out my group set of early frame stickers....

Sweet merciful crap!!! That is fantastic RicardoMan.

I think quite a number of us would dearly love to see the full sheet/brochure scans. I wouldn''t even worry about doing them as a single continuous PDF file; if you could save each page as individual JPG file or similar, one of us would gladly compile them in sequence into a PDF. It basically depends on the hardware resources (and time) you have at your disposal as well as what you can email or upload, data volume wise.

I myself now have 3 Ricardo frames of reasonable to better quality construction; two 'Tange 900' Vivas and a 'Tange 2' Nuovo.

Happy to help hold the torch for what I believe to be one of the last Australian made brand names.

- KymStuck in traffic? You ARE traffic.Sick of arguing with idiots on the internet? Well, do I have news for you!

Hi Drubie,Thanks for the info and putting the pics up on the big screen. Not much on the forums application as yet. My bike has 105 throughout apart from the crank. Ricardomans info is great but is mine a White Lightning? Chainstay stickie identical to Richardomans so can only guess that the other stickies are what was on the bike originally. Funny paintwork is growing on me but to reco whole bike will require it's demise as some little rusty bits in several spots.Tonyj

Do you have a serial number for this bike ?, I have been given a bit of an explanation how they are interrupted, where I purchased my bikes from the owner of the bike shop who has now retired and has been a close family friend for many years as qiven me a run down on the serial numbers. I'd be interested in comparing your serial number to mine.

It seems the guy who posted them originally has gone to ground, but the two near twin "Pinnacle" models here (coupla pages back in this thread) are very interesting. Only mention I've seen of any of the Ricardos with Reynolds tubing. By the L9.... serials - would that suggest they're more the period of your later model "White Lightenings"?

Well chuffed with the scan you've done of that counter flyer from 1988 - that's basically my Nouvo on the front page ('cept mines a 63cm version)

Please, keep the memorabililia coming.

- KymStuck in traffic? You ARE traffic.Sick of arguing with idiots on the internet? Well, do I have news for you!

It seems the guy who posted them originally has gone to ground, but the two near twin "Pinnacle" models here (coupla pages back in this thread) are very interesting. Only mention I've seen of any of the Ricardos with Reynolds tubing. By the L9.... serials - would that suggest they're more the period of your later model "White Lightenings"?

Well chuffed with the scan you've done of that counter flyer from 1988 - that's basically my Nouvo on the front page ('cept mines a 63cm version)

Please, keep the memorabililia coming.

Hi HappyHumber

Glad you liked the Nouvo flyer that was it's last year of production 1988, I raced with a guy that had a Nouvo in 1986.

I'll have a go at the serial number sequence and open it up for discussion, and base this of what I have interpreted and explained to me.

[0878] ? production serial number, number made of a particular model i.e (White Lighting was introduced to production in 1989 as Ricardo's top of range road bike)So this production number may represent that count or total ongoing frame production for year 1990.

As for the Pinnacle numbering it was offered in 1990 and replaced the white ligtning as there new range leader delegating the white lighting into the next model down. It's production number L9P0077 and L9P0080 were probably early production numbers for the model.

There are obvious minor inconsistances in the production numbering, mine being L 90 and the Pinnacle L9, my Elite from 1986 is just stamped L 0391.

I can still remember when I ordered my White Lightning and having to wait some time for it to be made, I think about a month or so at the time.

On my next trip home I will grab my original receipts and actually see when I bought all my bikes. I will also check my production numbers of my Viva's off the paper work.

I also had a thought that part of the serial number may have been the frame size as 87mm is also the height of my fork tube, (Probably a coincidence), however I noticed in the brochure they appear to measure by the seat tube.

My final thought is there may have been some method in there serial numbers as they may have attempted to incorporate some practicality in them i.e frame type, model, production number, production year.

Just recently recommissioned my 63cm Viva (#L7K0569) , generously passed along to me by Zeus here in the forums as a Fixed Gear general runabout & commuter. Loving it.

I found it a little odd their top of the line Nouvo was only specced with the 105 Groupset. My bike is fairly original with its 105, but otherwise pretty flogged out. I have similar period Shimano 600 components, and I plan to gradually build it back up as a 9sp friction shifter. Paint is by and large OK, with a few rust-blurred chips here and there but It should clean up well enough as is.

Possibly one for the Shed sub-forum, but I wonder how some NOS Shimano Biopace rings would go with a 9speed cassette...

- KymStuck in traffic? You ARE traffic.Sick of arguing with idiots on the internet? Well, do I have news for you!

Is it actually jiggered, or is it merely the skewiff mudguard mountings? they might be for 700c wheels, when this is a 27" wheeled beastie....But I tell you what - the seat post set up is definitely an eyebrow raiser!

- KymStuck in traffic? You ARE traffic.Sick of arguing with idiots on the internet? Well, do I have news for you!

Is it actually jiggered, or is it merely the skewiff mudguard mountings? they might be for 700c wheels, when this is a 27" wheeled beastie....But I tell you what - the seat post set up is definitely an eyebrow raiser!

Yes the frame is most definitely bent - paint is flaked off top and down tubes and the forks are bent back from a collision no doubt.The bloke riding it had no clue about bikes...

"I bet the handling's a bit twitchy with the forks like that ?""Ummm, dunno.""It'd be pretty hard to ride no hands too eh ?.""Ummm, I've never ridden it no hands"

You will note the 1990 range was quite extensive in comparison to the previous years, mainly due to the introduction of imported bikes to the lower range.All others frames were made in Australia by Ricardo. It's nice to see they were open in regards to identifying their imported models.

I have an 1984 Ricardo Elite that I paid approx. $700 (?) for with my hard earned from uni summer vacation work. My parents were distraught at the thought of spending that much money - but it was my sole form of transport.

I want to make some room in the garage and want to 'give' it away to a good home, but to someone who appreciates the history of it. The frame and gears etc are in pretty good nick as it has never been left outside...... if anyone is interested and live in the Adelaide area happy to hear from them.

peter.prest wrote:I have an 1984 Ricardo Elite that I paid approx. $700 (?) for with my hard earned from uni summer vacation work. My parents were distraught at the thought of spending that much money - but it was my sole form of transport.

I want to make some room in the garage and want to 'give' it away to a good home, but to someone who appreciates the history of it. The frame and gears etc are in pretty good nick as it has never been left outside...... if anyone is interested and live in the Adelaide area happy to hear from them.

Hi Peter, if the offer is still there I'll take it. Owned a Ricardo Elite myself until I broke it and quite like the marque. I'll PM you

All original fitout with possible exception of saddle, nearly all SR (Sakae Ringo) componentry except brakes and levers are DiaCompe and derailleurs/shifters are Shimano. Original 27inch wheels with 6 speed screw on cluster. Kept under cover all its life, usual chips and scratches in paint, only real damage is a minor dent in centre of top tube and middle braze on cable guide has been knocked off.

If anyone want to know more about the build/spec let me know.

Oh, and the 27in wheels will be for sale for a pittance, I'll be putting some 700c on it. SR hubs, 36 x 3 cross 14g spokes to Weinmann 27 x 1 1/4 rims. Quite tidy wheels, strong and true.

Got this from the dump the other day $15, just needed two new tyres and a couple of brake cables and a jolly good scrub. Man I'm loving this bike , you forget how relaxing riding can be and how going slow never felt so damn cool! Its got a Shimano 3s hub that I inadvertently disassembled whilst greasing the axle and after 2 days of scanning the net for answers I fluked it and am happy to say it works a treat. Big question is it's a Ricardo... what?? Nothing on the frame I can make out, and any ideas of the year. Look forward to hearing back.Cheers BurtO